A new section specifically for apps that work with Android Wear capable smartwatches has been unveiled on Google Play. Even though the compatible smartwatches, which include the LG G and the Moto 360, haven’t even been shipped yet, Android users can now plan ahead by checking out the apps. The news came right after Google announced it will close the ecosystem for Android Wear, forbidding third parties to create custom skins or smartwatch interfaces while universalizing the smartwatch experience across the Android platform. This preemptive strike, harnessing the considerable public curiosity about what exactly these watches could do, seems to indicate Google’s confidence in launching the Android-powered smartwatches. And given the burgeoning wearable market and the general trend towards wearable tech, Google’s vote of confidence on these apps could solidify their lead on wearables devices as they continue to flourish.
Category: Percolate
Facebook Launches Messager App On iPad
After launching a separate app for messaging all your Facebook friends on smartphones several months back, Facebook is finally bringing the update to iPad, with all functionality in tact. As the social media conglomerate continues to solidify its presence in the fast-growing market of mobile messaging apps, it seems fit to disintegrate its messaging app from its flagship social media app, as its number of active users keeps declining. It is also a smart move for Facebook to start establishing itself on the tablet devices, since there’s no official iPad version of WhatsApp, another messaging app that Facebook owns, currently available for iPad. The bottom line is, Facebook is taking messaging apps seriously, and they are implementing it across all mobile platforms.
YouTube Blames ISPs
Shots fired, again! Joining the blaming game that was just played by Netflix, YouTube is now publicly shaming the internet service providers for the low streaming speed experienced by some users. Now when your buffering speed is less than optimal, a blue notification bar pops up under the video that directs you to a comparison page between other ISPs in your area, which ranks providers based on the average speed they provide for their customers on YouTube.
The message is loud and clear: ISPs are responsible for whether your video playback is smooth. As the heat between OTT service companies and ISPs continues to rise, especially with the debate over net neutrality caught in recent media spotlight, Google, along with other internet-based companies, is no doubt working this user-experience angle as a subtle PR campaign. The effectiveness of this campaign, however, remains to be seen.
Facebook Purchases LiveRail
Facebook continues to build out its video ad platform by purchasing video ad tech company LiveRail. The acquisition means that Facebook users shouldn’t be surprised to see video ads based on your Facebook profile elsewhere across the Internet, as LiveRail is known for tailoring videos very specifically across platforms and sites. Publishers will benefit, as more relevant ads will help them make the most out of all the opportunities that they have across the web, but the creepiness factor might begin to creep in for users as they see the same videos everywhere.
Plasma TV Is Officially Dead
Samsung announced that it will end production of the last plasma TV’s that it produces later this year, and with it Plasma will disappear from the market. Like 3D TV before it, the technology failed to catch on with consumers, as LCD TV’s ultimately usurped Plasma. And now, with the rise of 4K and curved TV’s (okay, maybe not the latter), it was only a matter of time before this technology made its way to the exit. It’s yet another example of a technology with seemingly bold promise tarnished by the test of time.
Google Acquires Songza
After months of speculation, Google has officially acquired Songza, the music streaming service that uses information about the user to connect them with curated playlists. It’s a bold move by Google, one that puts them squarely into not only the music space, but the data space; Sonza collects mountains of data about what types of music people listen to based on the time of day so that they can accurately serve them the right playlists at the right time. For a company like Google, whose stated purpose is to seamlessly integrate technology into people’s lives, Songza makes perfect sense as an acquisition, and it’s not unreasonable to foresee playlist integration into Google Now – for instance, “I see your flight is delayed, let me pull up a playlist to calm you down.” – and across Google’s many platforms more broadly.
Boston Gets Smart Furniture
Boston will soon be getting some of the more tech-savvy city parks furniture in the country, and it points to an overall design trend of trying to maximize technology in a non-invasive fashion throughout public space. This particular iteration, dubbed “Soofas,” are solar-powered benches that will charge cellphones, and will also disseminate noise levels, temperature, air pollution data, and more through a dedicated dashboard. As smart, urban furniture becomes more and more disseminated throughout urban spaces, expect the quantification of self and data-based metrics to continue to rise, offering more nuanced situations for marketers and advertisers to target.
Nest Finally Integrates IFTTT
When Google acquired Nest, many were skeptical about its future. Initially, lots of users wondered if there was an effective way to integrate IFTTT, the simple IoT command suite, into the product to customize the controls. Now, even after Google’s purchase, Nest has listened, and has integrated IFTTT into its platform. It means that you’ll be able to control your thermostat with the ease of a text message, email, or phone call, if you wanted to get that granular. If the Internet of Things actually becomes as easy and reliable as people have wanted, perhaps the technology will finally take off to the extent that the industry has been predicting.
Facebook’s Psychology Experiment Raises Privacy Concerns
News broke recently that Facebook had manipulated 690,000 users’ Facebook experiences in order to see if a more positive news feed affected user behavior. The experiment only affected news feeds, and in the end found that emotion is contagious: those exposed to more positive posts posted more positive material, and vice versa. What’s concerning, though, is that Facebook – on a whim – decided it would use its users as psychological subjects, which goes against several different types of ethics. It plays into the narrative that is spouted more and more: Internet companies do not have users’ best interests at heart, and are in it for their own financial gain. Whether users will continue to trust Facebook in the same way that they once did a few years ago seems unlikely.
Google Glass Banned From UK Movie Theaters
Although Google Glass went on sale in the UK last week, the “Glass-hole” phenomenon appears to have spread globally, and now the Cinema Exhibitors’ Association in the UK has banned the glasses from all movie theaters, whether there is a movie on or not. It’s a move that makes sense, even though technically speaking it’d be hard to record a film properly through the glasses. It will be interesting to see how Google can make the all-in-one wearable palatable to a public that, it seems, isn’t quite ready to accept them yet.
